Method of preparing and applying a patch for a fourdrinier wire



' Oct. 1, 1946. J. A. HARRIS 2,408,422 METHOD OF PREPARING AND APPLYING A fATCH FOR- A FOURDRINIER WIRE Filed 001;. 29, 1 945 2 Sheets-Sheet l JESSE A.'- HARRIS INVENTOR ATTORNEYS 0a. 1,1946.v JQAHARZWS 2,408,422

METHOD OF PREPARING AND APPLYING A PATCH FOR A FOURDRINIER WIRE Filed Oct. 29, 1943 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ii B JESSE A. HARRIS INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 1, 1946 OFFICE METHOD'OF"PREPARINGTAND" APPLYING A PATCH FOR A FOURDRINIER WIRE Jesse A.. Harris, West Linn, mg, assignor. to Crown Zellerhach .Gorporatiom, San Francisco,- CaliiE- a corporation of Nevada.

Application October 29, 1943; SeriaIN'o. 508,222"

1 Claim.

This; invention relates to-the- Fourdrinier wire of. a. papermaki'ng machine and, specifically, to the patching of; mall holes developing in the Fourd'rinier wire as a result ofuse or due to other causes.

As is well known-, when a hole develops in the Fourdrinier wir it becomes necessary to repair or replace the wire immediately otherwise there willbe corresponding failure or imperfection in theimat' of .paper stock formed onthe Wire.

Atthe present time it is customary torepair holes in the Fourdrinier'wire by a sewingoperation" Such repairing enables maximum productivei life to be obtained from the Fourdrinierwire and. this is an important consideration since it meansrtheconservation of the essentialmaterials used initsmanufacture; However, while the cus tomaryand regular method of repairing or patching; the Fourdrinier wire by sewing is quite satisfactory, the chief objection to thisprocedure is that the operation requires an average minimum of 90" minutes for sewing even a small space; and during this period of 90 minutes or more themachine must be completely-shut down; which results in a loss in production and a'lossin man hours.

The object of the present invention is to prevent: or greatly reduce such loss by providing a method for patching the Fourdrinier WiIejWl'lich will'require only a very few minutes and which will enable the Fourdrinier wire then to' continue in service for considerable timejust'as if the repairinghad been doneby the longer and more laborious sewing method.

Afurtherobject of this invention isto provide aprepared patch, which can be made up'in quantity inadvance and kept ready for such emergency, and which can be quickly and easily applied to the Fourdrinier'wire whenever the necessity arises enabling'the Fourdrinier wire then to: continue: in use.

The manner; in which such improvedpatching Of'theFOllI'dIiIiierWiII-B is carried out by this in vention and the manner in which the patch" is prepared in advance andth-enapplied to-the'wire is: hereinafter fully describedwith reference to the: accompanying drawings. 7

In the drawings, which are moreor'less diagrammatic and in which the various wires are shown considerably enlarged for the sake of clarity:- I

Fig. I shows a piece of woven wire fabric of finewire mesh cut to the approximate size desired for the patchand suitable for being" formed into-my prepared-patch;

Fig. 2 shows the same piece of wire fabric after four shute wires havebeen removed from each end, the removal of these shute'wires constituting the first step in the preparation of the patch;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged isometric view of a :portion of one end of the same piece of wire fabric illustrating the alternate projecting warp strands at each end and a convenient way of sap-- arating alternate warp strands at each end of the piece;

Fig: 4 illustrates the next step in the preparation of the patch in which the alternate warp strand ends are bent downto enable-them to be cut off easily;

Fig, 5 shows the bent-down warp strand ends cut off' and their" stubs hooked around the end shute wires:

Fig: 6 is'a side elevation of the completed'patch with the warp ends straightened and thos at the rearen'd bent down at right angles, the patch now being ready for'attaching to the Fourdrinier wire; Fig. '7 is a diagrammatic side elevation illustrating the first step-in attaching the patch to the" Fourdrini'er" wire Fig; 8'- isa similar diagrammatic side elevation showing the'patch'fully secured in place;

Fig; 9 is a top plan view of a portion of the lBourdrinierwire showing the patch secured in place; and- Fig. '10 is a bottom plan view drawn to larger scale showing the, under side of the patched Fourdrinier' wire.

Asa rule the holes which occur in the Fourd'rinier'wire necessitatingimmediate repair are small, usually only'a, fraction of an inch in diameter; The piece of woven wire fabric or wire mesh t'obe usedifor'making the patch in accordance with'my method will therefore also be small, for*-exarnple, from /4 to- 1- inch square on an average.- The piece of wire fabric la-in Fig. 1 is assumed tobe such a piece cut tosufficient, size tomake the d'esired patch. It is necessary with nay-method that'the Warp strands in the woven wire'fabrieto be used to be of sufficient fineness to=pass readily through the meshes or interstices of theFourdrinierwire'. I' have found that the material ircm'whichthe patch is made is satisfactorily described tothe trade by stating that it is about 5 points finer" mesh than the Fourdrinierwire. The piece of patching fabric shown in the figures-is assumed to be of this approximate fine'ness as compared with the fineness-of the Fourdrini'erwire l5 (shown in Figs. 9- and -1-'0 The first step in forming the cut-out piece of material into my improved patch is the removal of several shute (or woof) wires at each end of the piece. I have found it preferable to remove four shute wires from each end, this number being sufiicient for my purpose. Fig. 2 shows ethe piece of patching material with these shute wires removed leaving th'e fifth shute wires II and I! as the last shute wires at each end. This removal of the shute wires is done to cause the ends of the warp strands to project from each end of the piece as shown at I2 and IS in Fig. 2.

Not all the warp strand ends can be used in attaching the patch to the Fourdrinier wire since these are too numerous. Therefore I use only the alternate warp strand ends for this purpose, and consequently the other warp strand projecting ends should be cut off. I have found that the most convenient way of doing this is to insert some thin instrument, such, for example, as a dentist's nerve probe, indicated at M in Fig. 3, across between adjacent warp strands into the position formerly occupied by the fourth or last removed shute wire at each end. This causes the projecting warp strand ends to be separated into two alternate groups, l2a and 121), thus with half of the warp wires l2a on one side of the instrument l4 and the other warp wires lZb on the other side of the instrument (Fig. 3). One of these groups lib may then easily be bent down at right angles if the packing piece is held against a block of wood or other convenient corner surface. Fig. 4 shows the warp wire ends !2b and I3?) bent down in this manner. These bent down ends can now be easily sheared oil by a pair of scissors without cutting the other warp strand ends PM or I311. The stubs of the cut-off warp strands are next bent around the fifth shute wire at each end, as shown at IS in Fig. 5. This makes the patching piece stronger by holding the end shute wires more firmly and also prevents any warp strand ends extending from the top surface of the patch when in place on th'e Fourdrinier wire. When the patching piece has reached this stage it is desirable to place the piece against a fiat surface and hammer the hooked stubs IS with a wooden mallet which will insure their lying fiat against the underside of the patch, both ends of the piece being treated identically.

The remaining warp strand ends l2a and Ba projecting from the ends of the patching piece will still be kinked and present a zig zag appearance, as shown in Fig. 5, and it is necessary to straighten out each one of these extending ends before proceeding further. This is a rather tedious step and I have found that the easiest way to do this is with a, pair of flat-faced tweezers. The tweezers should be placed on the warp strand ends close to the fifth shute wire and pulled out and off the ends of the strands, pulling them and straightening the kinks in each strand. It is desirable to use a hand lens or magnifying glass during this operation so that each strand end can be clearly observed. Some of the warp strand ends may have a tendency to turn 90 so that their kinks lie in the other plane and in such case an extra pair of sharp pointed tweezers should be used to grasp each of such strand ends separately and straighten them individually.

The final step in preparing the patch is to bend the projecting straightened warp strand ends l3a at the rear end of the patching piece down at right angles. This is very easily done by bending them over the corner edge of a block or any other suitable object. Fig. 6 shows the piece after this has been done. The patch is now ready to be attached to the Fourdrinier wire.

The attaching of the patch to the Fourdrinier wire is a. simple operation requiring only a. few minutes and thus requiring only a momentary shut down of the machine. The pro-formed and prepared patch is held against the top side of the Fourdrinier wire, positioned perpendicularly and transversely with respect thereto, with th'e projecting warp strand ends In at the front end of the patch passing through meshes in the Fourdrinier wire a short distance ahead of the hole to be covered. The patch Will then be in the relative position indicated in Fig. 7. These forward warp strand ends protruding from the underside of the Fourdrinier wire should be bent over in the opposite direction from the travel of the Fourdrinier wire to secure the forward end of the patch in place. The direction of travel is indicated by the arrows at in Figs. 9 and 10. This bending of the protruding ends ordinarily can easily be done by hand, or, if preferred, the Fourdrinier wire can be run slowly over the suction box which will produce the desired bending over of the protruding ends.

The patch is now tilted back until it lies fiat on the top face of the Fourdrinier wire, and during this positioning of the patch the warp strand ends l3a at the rear end of the patch, which had been .bent at right angles to the patch, are pushed through meshes of the Fourdrinier wire, and these ends are finally hooked over on the underside of the Fourdrinier wire also in the opposite direction from the travel of the Fourdrinier wire. This secures the rear end of the patch in place on the Fourdrinier wire. It will be obvious that if the warp strand ends were bent over in the opposite direction, viz. in the direction in which the Fourdrinier wire travels, the ends would engage the edges of the stuffing box and the patch would :be pushed loose. All the warp strand ends bent over on the under side of the Fourdrinier wire should be smoothed down and this can be conveniently done if desired by running the patched Fourdrinier wire onto the suction box edge and pounding the end of the patch with a small wooden mallet.

It will now be apparent that a, very few minutes will be required to attach the patch in place on the Fourdrinier wire and consequently, if the patching piece has been prepared in advance in anticipation of such emergency according to the manner which I have described, only a minimum amount of time is lost in making such repairs.

Although I developed my method of patching the Fourdrinier wire at first as only a temporary expediency with the idea of making a more or less temporary patch which would enable the Fourdrinier wire to continue in service for the time being and until more permanent repairing, such as "sewing the wire, could be conveniently performed, for example, when the plant was shunt down on a Sunday, I found that a patch made and secured in place in accordance with my method lasted as long on the average and proved fully as satisfactory as the sewed patches and other more laborious methods of repairing worn holes in the Fourdrinier wire. Oc- ;casionally it happens that a hole in the'Fourdrinier wire which has been patched once, will, if the patched wire continues in use for several weeks, wear larger until it extends beyond the patch border at one side. However, my method of patching offers an additional. advantage under I such circumstances in that the patch can be removed from the Fourdrinier wire just as easily as it is applied and a larger patchthen substituted in its place, this again requiring only a few minutes at most. For this reason it is desirable to have a supply of several patching pieces of different sizes made up in order that holes of different size can immediately be taken care of at any time.

It is of course possible to have patching pieces of different sizes specially woven for carrying out my method, thus with some of the shute wires omitted and also with the warp strands formed straight instead of kinked at the places where the shute wires are omitted. This would save the trouble of removing the shute wires from the patching piece in the way previously described.

I claim: The method of patching the Fourdrinier wire in a paper-makin machine comprising cutting a piece of woven wire fabric of finer mesh than the Fourdrinier wire to proper size to extend over the portion of the Fourdrinier wire to be patched,

removing several shute wires from opposite ends of said piece so as to leave the warp strand ends projecting from the ends of said piece, bending down the alternate projecting warp strand ends, cutting off said bent-down warp ends and turning their stubs back against the under side of the adjacent "shute wire to prevent said stubs from extending from the top surface of the patch, straightening out the kinks in said remaining projecting warp ends to facilitate their insertion in the meshes of the Fourdrinier wire, bending down the warp strand ends extending from the rear end of said piece until they are approximately at right angles to said piece, inserting the warp strand ends at the forward end of said piece through meshesof the Fourdrinier wire slightly ahead of the place to be patched by holding said patching piece against the Fourdrinier wire while positioned perpendicularly and transversely thereon, securing the forward end of said patching piece in place on the Fourdrinier wire by bending said forward warp strand ends back against the under side of the Fourdrinier wire in the direction opposite to the direction of Fourdrinier wire travel, tilting said patching piece back down on the Fourdrinier wire and inserting the bentdown warp ends at the rear of said piece through the Fourdrinier wire until the patching piece lies flat against the top face of the Fourdrinier Wire, and securing the rear end of said patching piece in place by bending said rear warp ends back on the under side of the Fourdrinier wire in the di-' rection opposite to the direction of Fourdrinier wire travel.

JESSE A. HARRIS. 

